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SQL Server 2012 – Fixing Up Post-Patch Issues

I have an “all in one” virtual machine for demonstrating the Business Intelligence features of SQL Server 2012 in combination with SharePoint 2010. My VM is based on the “Kiwi Build” setup documented in the TechNet Wiki article here (although mine is using VMWare Workstation instead of Hyper-V). As well as all varieties of Analysis Services (Tabular, MultiDimensional, PowerPivot) my VM also runs SharePoint, Master Data Services and Data Quality Services.

Since the initial release of SQL Server 2012, there have so far been three Cumulative Updates and this week a very large security update. I generally check these patches out using my VM and each time I’ve come across specific post-patch issues which need to be addressed. I thought it would be worth sharing these here, both for my own future reference and hopefully to assist others. Note that these issues are my experience on my VM – you may encounter very different problems when you apply the patches, most of which are caused by the updated assembly versions that the patch installed – I probably can’t help you with those.

So this week, as usual, I first took a snapshot of the VM, then applied the security update. This installed without problem and I could see following the update that all of the expected SQL Server services were running as was SharePoint Server. The post-patch fixing up is only needed once you start using the various SQL Server services –

PowerPivot Service in SharePoint

First I went to a PowerPivot Gallery in SharePoint, opened a workbook to display a pivot table with slicers. When I clicked on a slicer to filter the data, I immediately got a message saying “an error occurred during an attempt to establish a connection to the external data source” –

To fix this and get PowerPivot working again, you need to re-run the PowerPivot Configuration Tool. When this loads it checks the current farm status and in my case returned the following message telling me “newer versions of the PowerPivot solution files have been detected” –

And as you can see, the “Upgrade” option is already selected –

I did as I was told, ran the “upgrade features” option and once this completed, the error message had gone from SharePoint and I could once again use my published PowerPivot models.

Data Quality Services

Next I opened the Data Quality Services Client and attempted to make a connection to the server. I got a very verbose error message essentially telling me “an error occurred in the Microsoft .NET Framework while trying to load assembly id 65627” –

A quick online search led me to this document which discusses installing Cumulative Updates or patches on Data Quality Services. It doesn’t explicitly mention assembly ID 65627 (although other online articles do) but as it says, you do have to run DQSInstaller.exe – upgrade to fix the issue above which did the job for me.

Master Data Services

Finally (for me anyway) Master Data Services. When I opened the Master Data Manager web client, the message I got was “the client version is incompatible with the database version” and a request to update components using Master Data Configuration Manager –

So, off I went to Master Data Services Configuration Manager, connected to my MDS database, and got the same advice about upgrading the database –

Which I duly did, and once complete Master Data Services and Manager were back up and running (actually I think this is a little misleading because the original MDS error suggests that the client version is out of step, but the database upgrade fixes it).

So there you have it. From what I’ve seen so far all or some of the above steps will be needed after patching SQL Server 2012, depending upon which features you have installed. At the time of writing I haven’t tried applying Service Pack 1 which is currently at CTP level but if anyone has, please leave a comment.

Update December 2012 – I can confirm that after applying SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 it was again necessary to complete the steps outlined above fix the issues. As Cumulative Update 1 for SQL Server Service Pack 1 arrived fairly soon after I also tested this and found that SP1 CU1 didn’t cause anything to break.

2 Responses to “SQL Server 2012 – Fixing Up Post-Patch Issues”

[…] SQL Server 2012 – Fixing Up Post-Patch Issues (The WorkerThread Blog)I have an “all in one” virtual machine for demonstrating the Business Intelligence features of SQL Server 2012 in combination with SharePoint 2010. My VM is based on the “Kiwi Build” setup documented in the TechNet Wiki article here (although mine is using VMWare Workstation instead of Hyper-V). As well as all varieties of Analysis Services (Tabular, MultiDimensional, PowerPivot) my VM also runs SharePoint, Master Data Services and Data Quality Services. […]

[…] SQL Server 2012 – Fixing Up Post-Patch Issues (The WorkerThread Blog) I have an “all in one” virtual machine for demonstrating the Business Intelligence features of SQL Server 2012 in combination with SharePoint 2010. My VM is based on the “Kiwi Build” setup documented in the TechNet Wiki article here (although mine is using VMWare Workstation instead of Hyper-V). As well as all varieties of Analysis Services (Tabular, MultiDimensional, PowerPivot) my VM also runs SharePoint, Master Data Services and Data Quality Services. […]